Climate change is one of the hottest topics around the world at present (no pun intended). While people have felt a moral and social responsibility to take better care of the environment, legal requirements and targets have pressed the issue even further and are prompting more action to be taken.
In the UK specifically, the government has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Although the country has already reduced emissions by 42% compared to 1990 levels, there is still a long way to go, and it will take the hard work of everyone - both individuals and companies - to achieve that important target.
As a distributor or reseller, you not only have your own environmental obligations to meet, but you’re also in the position of helping your customers strive towards their sustainability targets, too. In this blog, we’ll highlight six ways that you can help your customers reduce their carbon footprint, and how Dell technology can help with each.
Sustainable materials
When considering hardware, it’s easy to think of some of the precious metals and other materials that go into the manufacture of a PC or a laptop. But that’s only part of the story: all the packaging that comes with each device, making it look attractive at the point of sale and protected in transit, generates its own environmental burden, too. Minimising the amount of packaging used, and using materials that are easier to manufacture and recycle, can therefore make a significant difference. Dell now uses nearly 180,000 metric tons of sustainable materials in products and packaging.
Net zero emissions
In the world of IT, there are three key scopes in which emissions are generated. Scope 1 covers direct emissions as a result of activities within a business, Scope 2 includes indirect emissions as a result of purchased energy (i.e. electricity, heating and cooling), and Scope 3 covers indirect emissions as a result of business activities and the supply chain, like travel, commuting and waste.
All of these need to be reduced if net zero is going to be achieved, which requires several different actions to achieve. At a global level, Dell has committed to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions across all three scopes by 2050, in line with the UK Government’s commitment.
Hardware recovery
All electrical devices have a finite lifespan, but that doesn’t mean to say that they’re completely useless once they stop working properly. Every day, old devices and kit are needlessly thrown away, making them unavailable for recycling services that can put them to better use. Globally, more than 1.1 million metric tons of used electronics have been recovered for recycling work since 2007, making a major impact in reducing the amount of new products needing to be made from scratch.
Reuse and recycling
All those recovered devices - and those that are voluntarily provided to recycling services - allows new equipment to be made with a vastly reduced environmental impact. Proactively encouraging more recycling is the best way to maximise the potential environmental benefit of hardware reuse. This is why Dell has committed, by 2030, to reusing or recycling one equivalent product for every product bought by customers.
Device efficiency
Reducing carbon emissions doesn’t necessarily have to mean using new technology or recycling old technology for second use: it can also be done by making existing technology work better. Just as automotive innovation has focused on improving fuel efficiency to cover more mileage for less energy, devices from PCs and laptops to smartphones and tablets are also being developed in ways that consume less power, run smarter and last longer on their batteries. Now more than ever, customers can enjoy devices that use substantially less energy without any compromise of performance.
Renewable energy
Of course, much of the above doesn’t make sense if the energy involved comes from non-renewable, highly-emitting sources. This is why it’s so important to move towards renewable energy as much as is practical, with the long-term goal of eliminating non-renewable sources entirely. Dell intends to source three-quarters of all the electricity used at Dell Technologies facilities by 2030, and increase this to 100% by 2040.
All these measures mean that when you provide customers with Dell products, you can be sure that they’ve been developed with sustainability in mind, supporting both their and your carbon footprint reduction measures. To explore Dell’s sustainability efforts in more detail, read our 2022 ESG Report.